Compared to many other similar games, Space Marine 2 has a pretty complex weapons system. You have your standard ranged and melee weapon options, but the stats attached to these weapons can be a bit tricky to get the hang of. On top of that, some stats are very unique to this game and understanding them is essential in getting the most damage out of your weapon.
So, to help you with that, our complete weapons guide will be looking at everything that you need to know about the weapons in Space Marine 2.
Most of the stats on ranged weapons are pretty straightforward, and if you’ve played any game with guns in it, you’ll know what most of them are. That said, some of the values can be a bit tricky to get a hang of, as there are some hidden stats within these stats.
Space Marine 2 also uses the same numbering system to measure each stat on a weapon. A plus next to a number will indicate that the stat is between 2 numbers. So a 2+ stat will pretty much equate to a 2.5.
Firepower
Firepower simply looks at the damage of your weapon. The higher the firepower is, the more damage each round will deal. Of course, when looking at damage, it’s also important to look at the rate of fire. A low rate of fire weapons will generally have higher damage, but that doesn’t always mean they have higher damage per second.
Accuracy
For accuracy, the main thing that you will be looking at is the default bullet spread. By default we mean your spread when you are not trying to control the gun’s recoil. A higher accuracy will mean a lower spread, so the overall area in which your bullets hit will be smaller. Higher accuracy guns are also generally easier to control, and recoil control is a very important skill in a game like Space Marine 2.
Rate of Fire
Rate of fire looks at how quickly your weapon shoots, so a higher rate of fire will mean more rounds dispersed per second. While a higher rate of fire is normally better, it can also make the gun a bit harder to control.
Reloading Speed
Again, this stat is pretty easy to understand, as it just looks at how fast or slow a weapon’s reload is. For reload speed, you will always want a higher value as it is objectively better.
Piercing
Piercing looks at how powerful the bullets of a weapon are. This should be confused with firepower, as piercing looks at how well a weapon can travel through characters and objects. Weapons like snipers will generally have higher piercing than smaller weapons like pistols and SMGs.
Range
With range, you are mainly looking at how good a weapon is at long ranges. A higher range will mean better damage output in longer ranges. Like with piercing, a weapon like a sniper will generally have a very high range number attached to it.
Magazine Capacity and Ammo Reserve
Magazine capacity looks at the number of rounds in one magazine, and ammo reserve looks at the total rounds you get with the weapon. Both of these stats are generally going to be interlinked as a big number for magazine capacity will most of the time mean a bigger number for ammo reserve.
Plasma Ranged Weapons
Most of the stats attached to plasma weapons will be the same as the ranged weapons. There are a few differences between regular weapons and plasma weapons, with the main one being venting.
Plasma weapons also don’t have a stat for piercing, reloading speed, and ammo reserve.
Venting Speed
So the main thing that differentiates a plasma weapon and a regular weapon is the fact that plasma weapons don’t have a traditional magazine and fire rounds differently. You can continuously shoot with a plasma weapon until it heats up, after which you will need to wait a while for the weapon to cool down before you can use it again.
Venting speed looks at exactly that, and a higher venting speed value will mean the weapon takes a longer time to heat up. So weapons that have a high venting speed value will be able to fire more rounds than ones with lower values.
Melee Weapons
Melee weapons in Space Marine 2 work very differently from ranged weapons, and the stats attached to them are also very different. You only need to worry about 4 different stats for melee weapons. That said, the stats for melee weapons are more complex than ranged weapon stats, making them a bit tricky to fully understand.
Strength
The strength stat is pretty straightforward, as it simply looks at the damage of the weapon. A higher strength rating will mean higher damage per hit with the weapon. Like with ranged weapons, you will need to look at the other stats to see what the damage output of a weapon is.
Speed
This stat looks at the speed at which you can attack with a weapon, so a higher speed will mean more attacks. When looking at the rate of fire for ranged weapons, a higher rate of fire will shoot out more rounds at a consistent rate.
Speed is a bit different in this regard. A higher speed number will have a bigger effect on the overall damage, as speed makes each individual attack faster. This difference is mainly felt during attack combos. The Speed stat will have a bigger effect on longer attack combos as the time reduction in which each attack comes out will add up.
Cleaving Potential
A big factor to look at with melee weapons in this game is how wide their attacks are. Cleaving potential looks at exactly that, and a higher cleaving potential stat means a wider attack range for a weapon. Melee weapons like hammers will generally have higher cleaving potential than something like a Power Fist.
Defense
Parrying is a very important mechanic to master in Space Marine 2. Like with most games, parrying in Space Marine 2 lets you negate the damage from an enemy’s attack and damage them back.Alongside a regular parry, Space Marine 2 also has a perfect parry. Performing a perfect parry on an enemy will leave it in a vulnerable state, during which you can use your ranged weapon to land a lethal blow to it.
Each melee weapon in this game has a defense rating attached to it. The defense rating determines how big your perfect parry window is. The 3 different defense ratings in this game are:
Fencing – Increased Perfect Parry window
Block – No Perfect Parry window
Balanced – Moderate Perfect Parry window
Weapon Specialization
Just underneath the stats of a melee weapon, you’ll be able to see a yellow and red meter. This meter basically tells you what your weapons specialization is. The yellow or left side of the meter means the weapon is better suited to killing single enemies, and the red side of the meter shows that the weapon is better at killing waves of enemies.
Weapon Variants
Variants in Space Marine 2 are basically upgrades for your weapons. All weapons in this game will have different variants that will fall under 4 different rarities.
Standard
Master-Crafted
Artificer
Relic
The rarities above are ranked in order, with standard being the base weapon, and Relic being the higher rarity.
Most of the variants in this game are direct upgrades over lower-rarity variants. Artificer variants will generally be better than Master-Crafted ones, and Relic ones will be better than the Artificer ones. That said, there are special variants in this game that can completely change a weapon.
Special variants will often switch around some of the stats of a weapon. The image above shows an example of this, as the Master-Crafted Marksman Bolt Carbine is a variant that increases some of the weapons stats, but at the same time, also decreases some.
These variants can completely change how a weapon works. So if you look at the weapon above again, the stats being switched around like they are will make the Bolt Carbine better at longer ranges, and worse in shorter engagements.
Melee weapons also have special variants for them, and these variants can also change the defense stat for these weapons. Some of these variants can completely change the specialization of a weapon too. So if you have a weapon that specializes in single target damage, the weapon might have a variant that makes it better at killing groups of enemies and worse at killing single targets.
The world of games is constantly changing and evolving and Ali is always looking for the new best game out there. With nearly 2 decades spent gaming, Ali has been playing video games since the early days of the first Xbox.
Ali enjoys all sorts of games, and writing allows him to channel his love for gaming through his work.